Overnight Open Thread (16 Aug 2013)

So what do you think morons? Do you prefer bottled or canned beer? I've always preferred bottled but two of my favorite beers come in cans (Guiness and Murphy's Irish Stout). This article, why canned beer is way better than bottled beer seems to focus on secondary benefits of canned beer and largely avoids how it tastes which in my view is most important. Of course, we've all had those moments where we don't care if it's in a can, bottle or cup as long as we had a beer, regardless of label.

Interesting. 'Vortex Surfing' could save military millions. Of course, just using regular jet fuel would save even more instead of the more expensive biofuel crap.

It's an aerial maneuver known as "vortex surfing" where cargo planes in a V formation ride the cyclone of upward pressure that spills off the wings of another plane flying roughly 3,000 feet in front. Special software developed for the large C-17 Globemaster III, allows the trailing plane to stay in the sweet spot of an upward draft, providing significant fuel savings.

Just don't let Asiana Airlines try this.

Only In Russia

Weather Conspiracies

Heh. I had just recently heard of the conspiracy related to HAARP (High Frequency Active Aural Research Program) and have heard what seems like forever about airplane contrails. Nice to see this debunked.

The idea that aircraft that produce contrails are really spraying “chemtrails” is preposterous on its face. Airlines mostly operate based on the weight of the aircraft. The weight of the passengers, cargo, and luggage onboard is crucial for both determining how much fuel is onboard, which ultimately determines how much they pay to fill the tanks, as well as the balance of the aircraft in flight. If the plane is too heavy or the weight is distributed incorrectly, it could crash.

Liquids are heavy. One gallon of jet fuel weighs approximately 6.7 pounds. Take a Boeing 747-400, for example: a fully-loaded 747 flying from London to Hong Kong would require almost a full tank of gas – somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 gallons of fuel. That’s upwards of 370,000 pounds of fuel in the tanks. Between the weight of the fuel, the passengers, the cargo, and the luggage onboard, there’s simply no room left for “chemtrail” chemicals even if they did want to spray us all with toxic gunk.

Some people who believe in the chemtrail conspiracy theories also swear by spraying distilled vinegar up in the air, claiming that the vinegar ascends thousands of feet in just minutes to neutralize a sky full of these wispy clouds. A quick search of “chemtrail” and “vinegar” on YouTube brings up over 3,800 hilarious videos of people seriously trying this.

Clarke--who initially flew from Amsterdam to Minneapolis and then on to Salt Lake City--claimed that he had a headache in the Netherlands. To ease the pain, “he decided to rub ‘peppermint oil’ on his forehead,” Christensen reported. Clarke apparently believed that the oil could be used as a topical pain reliever.

After applying the peppermint oil, Clarke claimed that he “went to the toilet.” While in the airplane lavatory, Clarke said, “I obviously touched my privates,” adding that he must have transferred peppermint oil to his penis since he “felt burning afterwards.”